Question New affordable(!) multi-gig switches @ Amazon (Zyxel, TP-Link, TrendNet)

[VirtualLarry]

Amazon.com: Zyxel 12-Port Web-Managed Multi-Gigabit Switch Includes 3-Port 10G and 1-Port 10G SFP+ [XGS1250-12]: Industrial & Scientific

Buy Zyxel 12-Port Web-Managed Multi-Gigabit Switch Includes 3-Port 10G and 1-Port 10G SFP+ [XGS1250-12]: Switches - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

https://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-2-5GBASE-T-Compatible-10-100-1000Mbps-TEG-S380/dp/B08XWKF55C/ref=sr_1_2

Amazon.com: TP-Link TL-SG108-M2 | 8 Port Multi-Gigabit Unmanaged Network Switch, Ethernet Splitter | 2.5G Bandwidth | Plug & Play | Desktop/Wall-Mount | Fanless Metal Design | Limited Lifetime Protection: Computers & Accessories

Buy TP-Link TL-SG108-M2 | 8 Port Multi-Gigabit Unmanaged Network Switch, Ethernet Splitter | 2.5G Bandwidth | Plug & Play | Desktop/Wall-Mount | Fanless Metal Design | Limited Lifetime Protection: Switches - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

https://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-2-5GBASE-T-Compatible-10-100-1000Mbps-TEG-S350/dp/B08XWK4HNT/ref=sr_1_6

Amazon.com: TP-Link Unmanaged 5-Port 2.5G Multi-Gigabit Desktop Switch, 802.3X Flow Control, 802.1p/DSCP QoS, Ideal for Small and Home Office with fanless Design, Metal Casing, Plug and Play (TL-SG105-M2): Computers & Accessories

Buy TP-Link Unmanaged 5-Port 2.5G Multi-Gigabit Desktop Switch, 802.3X Flow Control, 802.1p/DSCP QoS, Ideal for Small and Home Office with fanless Design, Metal Casing, Plug and Play (TL-SG105-M2): Switches - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

https://www.amazon.com/QNAP-QSW-M2108-2C-Managed-Switch-2-5GbE/dp/B08PDF97BX/ref=sr_1_17

Edit: Please don't clutter this thread with chit-chat about "enterprise" gear that you got second-hand, that just so happens to also sound like a jet plane.
This thread is about SILENT consumer switches, managed or not.

 

[Shmee]

Nice find!

 

[VirtualLarry]

The standout is the $169 8-port 2.5GbE-T TrendNet switch, I think. Finally, something affordable for 2.5 with 8 ports.

Would like to see that Zyxel 12-port unit, with 8x 2.5gig ports rather than 8x gig ports, but I'm sure that's in the works.

TRENDnet 5-port Unmanaged 2.5g Switch 5 X 2.5gbase-t Ports 25gbps Switching Ca for sale online | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for TRENDnet 5-port Unmanaged 2.5g Switch 5 X 2.5gbase-t Ports 25gbps Switching Ca at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

Same vendor of the 5-port TrendNet on Amazon, on ebay for same price, plus ship.

TRENDnet TEG-S350, 5-Port Unmanaged 2.5G Switch - Walmart.com

Buy TRENDnet TEG-S350, 5-Port Unmanaged 2.5G Switch at Walmart.com

www.walmart.com

Same vendor / price on walmart's site too.

 

[SamirD]

Nice to see prices coming down. Still have a way to go as $20/port is still a bit high since 1G is at $5/port, but at 2.5x the price it will start to make some serious sense as the nics start to get cheaper too.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Edit: Please don't clutter this thread with chit-chat about "enterprise" gear that you got second-hand, that just so happens to also sound like a jet plane.
This thread is about SILENT consumer switches, managed or not.

What? You don't want to talk about 40Gb network gear? Ok... But people should still at least consider some used enterprise gear that can be made silent, like the Brocade ICX7150-C12P (12xGbE ports + 2xSFP+ 10Gb ports, and only 12W of power draw and FANLESS), or Brocade ICX6450 (24x1GbE ports + 4xSFP+ 10Gb ports, and only 25W of power draw), or Brocade ICX7250 (24x1GbE ports +8xSFP+ ports and only 50W of power draw but still fairly quiet and can be fan modded easily to make silent).

 

[SamirD]

You don't know how hard I had to try to hold back...LOL!

 

[VirtualLarry]

My ideal switch, would be 8x 2.5GbE-T plus 2x 10GbE-T/multi-gig copper, with one of them having a combo SFP+ port, for $120-150, unmanaged, or $150-$200, managed.

Edit: Oh, and fanless / metal case, that does NOT get as hot as bejeezus.

 

[SamirD]

I think that will be available in the next year or so at that price.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I have a confession to make, I have both the TrendNet 8-port as well as the 5-port un-managed 2.5GbE-T switches coming my way.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Wow that's great to see this sort of stuff coming down in price. I bought a 4 port gig card for my file server years back, and since it's a huge deal rebooting that server I'm basically waiting for a situation where I have absolutely no choice, then I will install it. Idea is to do teaming with it to increase bandwidth. But starting to think I'm better off getting a 10 gig card at this point lol. A smaller switch like this would be fine as only the storage server and VM servers would need to be connected to it so don't really need a full blown 24 gig enterprise switch.

Also interesting to see 2.5 and 5 gig, I did not know those were a thing. I thought it went straight to 10.

Speaking of noisy enterprise gear I've kind of standardized my network on Dell switches, no real reason, guess because they are pretty cheap used. But some of them have pretty loud fans that at some point I'll want to either change, or at least put rubber spacers. One of them has this weird resonance going on in my rack if the temp is just right it starts to make an odd pulsating whining noise. Come to think of it, it might actually be smart to mount all equipment itself with rubber spacers. What works well for that is wiring grommets, you can get them in all sorts of different sizes on Digikey.

 

[VirtualLarry]

TP Link TL-SG105-M2 5-port 2.5g Multi-gigabit Desktop Switch (tlsg105m2) | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for TP Link TL-SG105-M2 5-port 2.5g Multi-gigabit Desktop Switch (tlsg105m2) at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

beach audio has the TP Link 5-port unmanaged 2.5 GbE-T switch for just under $150 on ebay now.

 

[SamirD]

Wow that's great to see this sort of stuff coming down in price. I bought a 4 port gig card for my file server years back, and since it's a huge deal rebooting that server I'm basically waiting for a situation where I have absolutely no choice, then I will install it. Idea is to do teaming with it to increase bandwidth. But starting to think I'm better off getting a 10 gig card at this point lol. A smaller switch like this would be fine as only the storage server and VM servers would need to be connected to it so don't really need a full blown 24 gig enterprise switch.

For your setup, it sounds like some dual port 10Gb sfp+ cards with dacs to interconnect everything would be a perfect option, and perfectly cheap as I've seen 2x cards and a dac going for $60 shipped in certain places.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Rather just use ethernet, don't have to mess with trying to source out the SFP cards and make sure they are compatible etc. Just simpler to keep everything ethernet.

 

[SamirD]

Rather just use ethernet, don't have to mess with trying to source out the SFP cards and make sure they are compatible etc. Just simpler to keep everything ethernet.

10Gbe SFP+ cards are ethernet. They just typically use transceivers and fibre. But for short runs you can use Direct Attach Cables (DACs) and you get the same link as if you used dual port 10GBase-T cards and used ethernet cable. It's a really common way to interconnect just 1-3 systems at 10Gb (and higher) without needing a switch.

 

[killster1]

What? You don't want to talk about 40Gb network gear? Ok... But people should still at least consider some used enterprise gear that can be made silent, like the Brocade ICX7150-C12P (12xGbE ports + 2xSFP+ 10Gb ports, and only 12W of power draw and FANLESS), or Brocade ICX6450 (24x1GbE ports + 4xSFP+ 10Gb ports, and only 25W of power draw), or Brocade ICX7250 (24x1GbE ports +8xSFP+ ports and only 50W of power draw but still fairly quiet and can be fan modded easily to make silent).

i couldn't even start to think of a use for 2.5gb switches (why not just plug 2.5gb into a 10gb switch? well other then loving to upgrade every few years heh). what devices besides substandard motherboards use 2.5gb? My boards have 10gb built in. Is it rare that a laptop comes with 2.5gb? all the lappies we in my house are 1gb but with upgraded wifi 6 cards ;/

 

[mxnerd]

i couldn't even start to think of a use for 2.5gb switches (why not just plug 2.5gb into a 10gb switch? well other then loving to upgrade every few years heh). what devices besides substandard motherboards use 2.5gb? My boards have 10gb built in. Is it rare that a laptop comes with 2.5gb? all the lappies we in my house are 1gb but with upgraded wifi 6 cards ;/

2.5Gbps & 5Gbps standard comes after 10Gbps, so not every switch supports 1, 2.5, 5 & 10 Gbps, only new chipsets that support all 4 speeds can handle all of them. Many switches support 1 & 10 Gbps only.

I would have used cheapo 40Gbps NICs and virtualize about everything if I were VL, where virtualization platform will let you control each VM's virtual NIC's bandwidth.

 

[Red Squirrel]

10Gbe SFP+ cards are ethernet. They just typically use transceivers and fibre. But for short runs you can use Direct Attach Cables (DACs) and you get the same link as if you used dual port 10GBase-T cards and used ethernet cable. It's a really common way to interconnect just 1-3 systems at 10Gb (and higher) without needing a switch.

By ethernet I meant the physical connector. Easier to just use cards that use that, than have to mess with sourcing out all the other stuff.

Fibre could be fun to play with though, but not really necessary really especially for SAN side as it's all short distances.

 

[Fallen Kell]

By ethernet I meant the physical connector. Easier to just use cards that use that, than have to mess with sourcing out all the other stuff.

Fibre could be fun to play with though, but not really necessary really especially for SAN side as it's all short distances.

And that is why you get a DAC (Direct Attached Cable) which has built in transceivers on each end. These are designed for short runs (i.e. in the same rack or next rack over 1-5m). Many of these cables are actually copper based, not fibre for added flexibility (much tighter bend radius), and durability. On top of that, they are cheap, especially since you don't need transceivers for the SFP, QSFP, SFP+, QSFP+, SFP28, or QSFP28 ports. And as I have said in many other threads about networking gear, 40Gb cards are cheap. You can find Mellanox ConnectX-3 cards that will support 40GbE for $30-40 (might need to be flashed or have the firmware set to 40GbE mode, but that is simple with the provided tools from the manufacturer). It can actually be cheaper for 40Gb than for 10Gb, or 2.5Gb. Also, some of the switches I have been mentioning support transceivers that a 2.5Gb in their SFP+ ports, although I don't know why someone would want to do that when 10Gb could be used instead. This is why I don't understand the whole 2.5Gb push in the first place. Aside from CAT5e, there is no reason to not be using 10GbE, and seriously, if you ran cable in your home or work in the last 10 years and didn't pull CAT6, I don't know what you were thinking as the cost difference in the physical cable is next to nothing compared to the cost of actually running the cable (i.e. the time it takes to do it) and we have known for over a decade that CAT6 would support 10Gb with runs under 55m which should be sufficient for almost any home or office setup.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I still need to source that special cable... my point is, with ethernet I can use stuff I already have or that is standard and easy to source instead of something specialized. Don't really want to directly attach as that is not scalable so I'd still want a switch.

Also have cat6 throughout the whole house already, though gig is fine for regular network stuff, the 10g stuff would mostly be for back of rack stuff.

 

[UsandThem]

Locked at OP's request.

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